Reading and Writing Architecture

Catalog description

As readers and learners, we consume lots of writing about architecture: articles appear in magazines, convincing and polished, finished products for which we struggle to imagine the process. We seldom pause to reflect on how that writing is produced, much less on how we could make writing a tool that works for us. In this collaborative, hands-on class we will work to demystify the process of writing in all its messiness and to highlight its iterative nature. We will explore how various genres of writing work and how architects can use them effectively, not only to communicate with audiences of all kinds but also to explore their own creative ideas. We will read writing about architecture by a number of different voices - architects, critics, historians, journalists, and activists. We will discover from their own approaches to writing what might work for us. We will experiment with writing and editing and explore how text, images and layout may come together to create a cohesive communication strategy. We will focus on becoming sophisticated as consumers and producers of written communication as we are for visual media.